1. Field of the Technology
The technology relates to the creation, management and maintenance of electronic patient health care records, and more particularly to a system including mobile hand-held devices for inputting, coordinating and synchronizing patient health care information, including billing information, in real time, and assessing fees based on services.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years there has been an increasing trend in almost all fields of business and in the professions toward maintaining records in electronic form. This form of record retention has several advantages. These advantages include relative ease of updating records, creation of electronic files, and management of large numbers of records, while minimizing manual labor. In addition, in many instances, the frequency of errors and “lost” or misfiled records may be reduced significantly in a well-managed electronic system. Moreover, access to electronic records is facilitated. For example, the person seeking to access records may do so remotely by Internet access to a database that often requires a password authentication protocol that allows appropriate users virtually instant access from any location in the world.
In general, there is a perception that the health care sector has lagged, to some extent, in the adoption and use of electronic records, as compared to the accounting sector, for example. There are many reasons for this lag in the adoption of electronic medical records, including, for example, the upfront costs of conversion to electronic records, the need for care givers (such as doctors and nurses) to be trained and willing to use a system, the cost of conversion for smaller doctors' offices, compatibility between health provider systems and the variety of heath insurance provider systems, and the need to comply with patient confidentiality criteria spelled out in the so-called HIPAA Statute (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) and Regulations promulgated pursuant to the statute.